What Does John 2:4 Mean in the King James?
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Jesus’ “hour” names a season coming to fullness, so “not yet” speaks to the work’s unfolding, not just the clock.
THE MEANING
Here, closeness does not erase distinction: the request is present, but Jesus’ hour is not. His answer leaves that tension in the open rather than turning the exchange into easy agreement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the assumption that a real need means its full answer is already due; Jesus names a real “not yet.”
THE ROOT
ὥρα
hōra
GROWS FROM
ὡρ-
hōr-
A season, period, or appointed time.
The Greek word carries the sense of a season or appointed moment, giving “hour” more depth than a clock reading. Its word family includes what is timely or ripe, so the verse presents Jesus’ work as having a moment that has not yet ripened.
ALSO GROWS
hōraios: Timely, in season; also beautiful.
ὡραῖος
This branch joins seasonable timing with beauty: the moment has its own rightness, which has not yet arrived here.
hōrimos: Ripe, mature, in season.
ὥριμος
Its sense of ripeness illuminates “not yet”: the hour is still ahead, like something whose season has not come.
THE PATTERN
A decisive work has its appointed season, and the “not yet” is part of its unfolding.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,THE THREAD
And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.The same word, ὥρα (hōra), moves from “not yet come” here to “is come” in John 12:23. That echo makes the hour a threshold in the unfolding, not merely a measure of time.
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